Eco-Effectiveness is a strategy developed by renowned architect
and sustainability leader William McDonough for business growth
and prosperity that generates ecological, social, and economic
value. It represents a fundamental conceptual shift away from
the flawed system design of the Industrial Revolution, not just
a damage management strategy.

Eco-effectiveness seeks to design industrial systems that emulate
the healthy abundance of nature. The central design principle
of eco-effectiveness is waste equals food.

When waste equals food, the "be less bad" imperatives
of efficiency fade. When a product returns to industry at the
end of its useful life and its materials are used to make equally
valuable new products, the minerals or plastics of which it
is made do not need to be minimized-because they will not become
waste in a landfill. Industry saves billions of dollars annually
by recovering valuable materials from used products. Similarly,
products designed to be made of natural, safely biodegradable
materials can be returned to the soil to feed ecosystems instead
of depleting them.